Calla

my takeaway from that scene is that the duke is the maternal uncle to both princes. it doesn't matter who gets the throne - he will be related to the future emperor regardless. he is aware that prince han is plotting against the crown prince, but he doesn't aid prince han or defend the crown prince. he has been neutral.

however, because his daughter got caught by the crown prince for abusing her family's power, the duke is now in trouble too. the crown prince told them to report to court(?) the next day for punishment. this makes the duke bitter, which is why he just stands by and watches when the crown prince is "assassinated."

if the crown prince lives, the duke's family will have to be reprimanded for their corruption; if the crown prince dies, the problem goes down the drain. it is in that moment, as the supposed crown prince falls on stage, that the duke decides he is okay with the crown prince dying. because although he has no part in the assassination, now he has something to gain from it.

i don't think the deposed crown prince (aka uncle liu) is completely useless, otherwise, prince han wouldn't see him as a threat.

but you are correct, there are two siblings fighting for the throne right now: the current crown prince (the guy marquis yuan and jinqi support) and prince han (the guy the zhao family supports).

prince han seems to be as cruel and merciless as his father, the dying emperor. him going after the deposed crown prince (who is powerless atm) reminds me a lot of the emperor going after the shen family. i understand why jinqi doesn't want him to become emperor.

jinqi helped the deposed crown prince / uncle liu escape. how does the current crown prince (who will soon become emperor) feel about the deposed crown prince? will this choice come back to bite jinqi in the future?

which i'm thankful for! we should always strive to be better than our predecessors.

btw, have you read the novel for against the current? if so, i do have a question:

such a painful truth.

in ep1, when those officials shook their heads after discovering the shen women had taken their own lives, one of them said something along the lines of, "i wanted to take the younger ones and train them myself" - that is forever burned into my brain. it made me want to throw up.

so heartbreaking that death is kinder than a life at the mercy of some men.

oh, this is so beautifully written. i love your thoughts on this episode!

you are right though. there's a lot going on. blink and you will miss something. i had to rewatch several scenes in order to understand the context better myself lol.

you are welcome. hope you continue to enjoy the drama. see you around!

i don't think scholar han knows the real identity of uncle liu... at least not yet. scholar han seems to be a man of humble origins. i doubt he is old enough or of a high enough rank to have ever met any royals. but i'm sure he is smart enough to realize that there is more to the story than what jinqi and uncle liu are letting on.

now, master lu (lanxiang and scholar han's landlord), on the other hand? i feel like he might know. he seems to resent the lin family, which makes me feel like he was close with the shen family. he placed third in the imperial exam a long time ago, so he might have even met the deposed crown prince before he fell from power.

i don't know how the current crown prince feels about the deposed crown prince or if he sees him as a threat the same way prince han does, but i have a feeling jinqi helping uncle liu escape will become a problem someday...

it is a bit confusing for me too, but from my understanding, the one who cut off the tip of his own finger was the deposed crown prince. he was banished after he lost his title. he now goes by the name "uncle liu", and he has been laying low all these years in order to survive.

now that the current emperor is dying, prince han is trying to get rid of any potential imperial contenders for the throne, aka the current crown prince (prince han's brother) and the deposed crown prince (uncle liu). that was why those officials (prince han's faction) were looking for a man with an abnormally long index finger.

jinqi recognized uncle liu as the deposed crown prince and helped him escape. it was not only to gain info about lanxiang's kidnapper, but also because jinqi felt the deposed crown prince had committed no crimes and did not want any more innocent lives to die (a reference to the shen family's tragic fate under the wrath of the current emperor so many years ago).

tbf, nobody deserves her. she is wild grass, she will thrive no matter where she is or who she is with.

i think she will live a very happy and peaceful life if she marries the sml, but sucks for him - our ml wants her more and he will never let that happen. i'm not mad about that lol.

so so good. thank god for great writing!

omg, what an amazing episode this was!

that scene with lanxiang and ji'er switching outfits made me cry. there's just something so beautiful about a women-supporting-women story that a straight-up romance can never compare to. knowing that ji'er will suffer by "having to sleep with more customers" as a punishment for helping lanxiang escape that same fate... and hearing lanxiang promise to come back for her... breaks my heart.

despite ji'er's pitiful circumstances right now, her character's development has been done so well. however she was in the past, i am no longer annoyed with her because she went from only wanting to protect herself to wanting to protect others... even if it costs her.

all of these women are just trying to survive, and for my mental well-being, i hope they all do.

ep23. lanxiang and an unlikely hero:

oh yes. after i responded to you, i went back to rewatch ep12 (it's been a year since i last saw it), and the wutuo invaders really did just walk right into the base in broad daylight. what a mess. 😂

in the novel, the watchtower soldiers were killed in the middle of the night by enemy scouts who arrived first, and it was snowing heavily, which muffled much of the commotion. instead of waiting for midday, the attackers stormed the base very early in the morning just as the new recruits were waking up and discovering their watchmen had been murdered. the drama definitely should've done a better job adapting this scene lol.

even so... i'm happy to see you enjoying the drama. it's one of my all-time favorites too!

i know it has been a few days since you left this comment, but to answer your question:

in the novel, many soldiers were stationed in the watchtowers, but they were all killed in the middle of the night. there was one soldier who, even after being injured, still tried to beat the drums as a final act of bravery to warn his fellow soldiers, but the enemies cut off his arm and he bled to death.

on top of that, xiao jue had received false intel requesting reinforcements elsewhere, so he took most of the seasoned soldiers with him. the only ones left were new recruits, who were too inexperienced to realize anything was amiss.

that is why the base was infiltrated so easily.

thank you for sharing. that was a fascinating, yet heartbreaking read. i guess no good deed really goes unpunished... han liang is starting to feel like such a tragic character.

i see, thank you. i am okay with no romance, but hopefully it's not too depressing. i'm also tired of that lol.

even after reading the synopsis and watching the trailer, i'm still not really sure what this drama is about. is it fantasy? is it thriller? what era is it supposed to be? i have no clue. but it looks high quality, so i'll definitely check it out. 😅

imo, xintang isn't as smart as lady du, so i can't say she'd be able to dodge all of lady du's schemes. but she isn't as patient as lanxiang either, so she probably wouldn't have given lady du enough chances to step out of line. after all, she threw a fit over a servant sharing the same surname as her, so would she really be okay with lady du openly scheming to be jinqi's concubine? she doesn't love him, but she hates people who cross her.

the moment lady du starts to get under xintang's skin, since she can't directly hurt lady du due to the lin family's protection, i'm sure she would've started plotting to have lady du married off to an outsider asap. that outsider would look like a proper husband in public, but would most likely treat lady du horribly in private. lady du would most definitely be cunning enough to escape, but the point is, i think that's what xintang would have tried to do if she were still around lol.